Museum at the Gateway Arch Grand Opening CelebrationST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com), May 13, 2018- The Gateway Arch Park Foundation has launched the #YourArch campaign, a one-of-a-kind collaborative photo montage to celebrate the grand opening of the Museum at the Gateway Arch and new West Entrance on July 3. Images will be sourced through social media, Instagram and Twitter, using the hashtag #YourArch. Photos can also be uploaded through the campaign's website, www.YourArch.org.

The crowd-sourced and Arch-inspired masterpiece will be unveiled at the Museum at the Gateway Arch grand opening celebration on July 3. The #YourArch photo call is open to lovers of Gateway Arch National Park near and far, and can include both newly-snapped selfies and vintage throwbacks of
people with the Arch and the surrounding Gateway Arch Park. A new #YourArch inspired video launches May 4 as part of the campaign, and captures the connection visitors and St. Louisans have with the monument.

"The Arch is part of so many shared memories - grade school field trips, an iconic backdrop for stunning wedding photos and those first futuristic tram rides to the top revealing a spectacular view of St. Louis," says Eric Moraczewski, executive director of the Gateway Arch Park Foundation. "We see millions of visitors, from St. Louis and around the world, taking their photos with the Arch. The #YourArch campaign celebrates that shared pride and awe of the monument and reminds us that the Arch belongs to everyone."

To enter photos, use #YourArch on Instagram or Twitter (profiles must be public), or visit www.YourArch.org to upload them directly to the campaign.

The new North Gateway is 7.5 acres of usuable park space and includes the Lewis and Clark Explorers' Garden for children with an elevated walkway and accessible pathways winding through a diverse mix of newly planted trees.

A new glass entrance to the Museum of Westward Expansion below the Arch will face the Park Over the Highway and the Old Courthouse. Conceptual image courtesy CityArchRiver 2015Visitors will be able to enter the new west entrance without a single stair step or ramp and enjoy sweeping view of the Old Courthouse and St. Louis through the sweeping wall of glass. Conceptual image courtesy CityArchRiver 2015

Arch Museum Opening Delayed Until Summer 2018ST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com)- The last major pieces of the $380 million dollar project, the museum exhibits and expanded visitor center under the Arch, will open in the summer of 2018 with a grand opening celebration.

The new museum at the Gateway Arch will invite visitors to experience exhibits including Jefferson's Vision, Riverfront Era, New Frontiers, Manifest Destiny, Colonial St. Louis and Building the Arch. Once completed, the $380 million CityArchRiver project is expected to come in at or under budget.

"We are excited to be one step closer to completing this incredible new experience for visitors at the Gateway Arch," said Mike Ward, superintendent of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, National Park Service.

"While we had hoped that the project would be completed by the end of this year, it is most important that the project is completed in the right way. When we re-open the museum next summer, we are confident people will see that the wait was worth it."

New Name for Jefferson National Expansion MemorialST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com)- Missouri U.S. Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill co-sponsored legislation, S. 1438, which renames the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial as the Gateway Arch National Park.

"The St. Louis Arch is one of the world's most iconic landmarks and a symbol of our state's historic role as the 'Gateway to the West,'" said Blunt. "Renaming the park will better highlight its central feature and make it more immediately recognizable to the millions of people who visit St. Louis every year."

"The Arch is known worldwide as a symbol for our great city of St. Louis, the Show-Me state, and the Gateway to the West," said McCaskill. "As the memorial grounds re-open this summer, it's the perfect time to bring our majestic park together under a new name that highlights this remarkable symbol."

The Blunt-McCaskill bill aligns the name of the park with its most famous and widely-recognized feature.

S. 1438 passed the Senate on December 21, 2017. Companion legislation was introduced in the House by Missouri U.S. Representatives Wm. Lacy Clay and Ann Wagner.

The park features the Gateway Arch, designed by architect Eero Saarinen who won the design competition in 1947. The stainless steel structure rises 630 feet high from a 60-foot foundation and spans 630 feet at ground level. Its classic weighted catenary curve sways 1/2" - 1" in 20 mph wind. The Arch weighs 17,246 tons. Nine hundred tons of stainless steel was used to build the Arch, more than any other project in history. Construction on the nation's tallest memorial, built at a cost of $13 million began February 12, 1963 with the "topping out" on October 28, 1965. It was dedicated in 1966.

The nearly 180-year-old Basilica of St. Louis King of France, known fondly as the "Old Cathedral", is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Basilica of St. Louis King of France (Old Cathedral)ST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com)- The St. Louis' historic Old Cathedral, known officially as the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, is one of the world's most honored churches. It stands on a tiny plot on the downtown riverfront near the south leg of the Gateway Arch. The original log chapel was dedicated over 200 years ago in 1770.

The structure of the Old Cathedral, completed in the autumn of 1834, is a prominent example of Greek Revival architecture in the United States, and it is included on the National Register of Historic Places. The exterior stone facade and the four columns that support the Doric style portico are carved from Joliet stone, mined near Joliet, Ill.

In 1961, the most important honor ever afforded any American church was handed down by His Holiness, the late Pope John XXIII, who decreed Basilican status upon the church. An intensive rehabilitation program on the appearance of the Old Cathedral was completed in 1963.

Visitors can see the tomb of Bishop Joseph Rosati, builder of the present Old Cathedral building, paintings dating back to the late 1700's and a dramatic series of Arteaga photos at the Old Cathedral Museum. The Old Cathredal is located at 209 Walnut Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63102. For more information, call 314-231-3250.

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